


Sometimes a Fish Is Just a Fish

by DizzyDrea



Category: Numb3rs
Genre: Gen, Introspection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-28
Updated: 2012-01-28
Packaged: 2017-11-05 03:37:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 302
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/402027
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DizzyDrea/pseuds/DizzyDrea
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Charlie reflects on the koi pond, and on life in general.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sometimes a Fish Is Just a Fish

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [numb3rs100](http://numb3rs100.livejournal.com/) Prompt #26 – Fish
> 
> This was inspired by a friend's plot bunny "Charlie by the koi pond". I'd desperately begged for light and fluffy plot bunnies to counteract some seriously dark stories I'd written. I'm not sure this is quite what she had in mind, as it's neither light nor particularly fluffy, but it's not dark and that was the whole point.
> 
> Originally posted on LiveJournal.
> 
> Disclaimer: Numb3rs belongs to The Barry Schindel Company, Scott Free Productions, CBS Television Studios and a lot of other people who aren't me. I'm doing this for fun and for practice. Mostly for fun.

~o~ 

Charlie sat quietly by the koi pond, watching the fish dart back and forth as the water rippled and splashed. 

He remembered when his father built the pond. Alan had brought the koi home, settling them in the pond as he and Don watched. They'd pointed out the markings on some, Charlie talking about the genetic causes of the various colorings, and the math behind their occurrences. 

They'd decided that the fish should have names. Charlie wanted to name them Einstein and Planck. Don favored DiMaggio, Ruth and Ripkin. Margaret decided that at least one of them should be called George, just like the koi in her favorite Bogart movie, _Sabrina_. Alan rolled his eyes, not getting why the fish had to have names at all. 

Charlie chuckled as the memory washed over him. It was an odd thing to think about on a quiet Saturday afternoon. Normally, when he watched the fish swim around their little home, his attention was consumed by fluid dynamics; the flow of the water, the ripples in the surface breaking the surface tension, the volume contained in the pond versus the displacement of the fish. 

Today, his mind was taken by more existential musings. Such as wondering whether the fish in the pond were aware of the people that took care of them. And whether humans were just fish in someone else's pond, swimming through life blissfully unaware. And if that were true, who took care of them? 

He was a little surprised by his musings. He preferred to think in concrete terms instead of flights of fancy. He'd briefly considered physics in school, but he'd chosen math for its structure. Somehow, he thought Larry would be proud. 

Charlie shook his head, smiling. As Freud once said, sometimes a fish was just a fish. 

~Finis

**Author's Note:**

> The idea of our world being just a koi pond in someone else's backyard actually comes from Men In Black (our galaxy being just one marble in an alien game of marbles) and Men In Black II (our world existing inside a locker at an intergalactic way-station). It's a perspective shift that perhaps we can all benefit from, just as Charlie did.


End file.
